Key learning points

1. Dickens was influential in establishing the ghost story as a popular genre in the Victorian period.
2. Dickens capitalised on the popularity of this genre to spread his social message: he wanted this to be a best seller.
3. Unlike the ghosts of early Gothic fiction, Dickens made the supernatural a natural extension of the real world.
4. Dickens uses the ghosts as a literary device that enables him to explore moral and social issues.
5. The apparitions structure the narrative and move it towards Stave 5, where we see Scrooge’s impressive transformation.

Keywords

• Genre - A style or category of literature.

• Supernatural - A phenomenon that cannot be explained by science or constrained within the laws of nature.

• Victorian respectability - The Victorian belief that people should act, dress and behave in a certain, socially-acceptable way.

• Deviant - Anything deviant goes against the accepted norm or standard of behaviour.

• Conservative - Conservative means very traditional and established - resistant to change.

Common misconception